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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/oldsweethegrtofm02rile 



An Old 

Sweetheart of Mine 








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An Old 



Sweetheart of Mine 




Tames Whitcomb Riley 

Drawings by 

Howard Chandler Christy 









Decorations by- 
Virginia Keep 



The Bowen-Merrill Company 
Publishers Indianapolis 



Copyright, 1888—1899-1902 
James Whitcomb Riley 

Copyright, 1902 
The Bowen-Merrill Company 



CONGRESS, 
Ti^o Csjp\tM Recsived 

NOV, gg fQfl? 

CnPVBIQHT ENTRY 

CLASS «^XXa No, 
COPY B. 



Pres3 of 

Braunworth & Co. 

Bookbinders and Printers 

Erocklyn, H. Y. 




An Old 
Sweetheart of Mine 








Inscribed 

To GEORGE C. HITT 

The beginning of whose steadfast friendship was 
marked by the first publication of these verses 
which now, expanded by writer, honored by 
publisher and masterfully graced by artist, seem 
to be a worthier symbol of the author's grateful 
and affectionate regard for his earliest friend 



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I Frontispiece — An Old Sweetheart of Mine. 

II A fair, illusive vision that would vanish 
into air 

III The then of changeless sunny days — The 
now of shower and shine 

IV The old bookshelves and prints along the 
wall 

V I find the smiling features of an old sweet- 
heart of mine 

VI Its fate with my tobacco and to vanish 
with the smoke 



List of Illustrations 



VII When my truant fancies wander with that 
old sweetheart of mine 

VI I i The voices of my children and the mother 
as she sings 

IX For I find an extra flavor in Memory's 
mellow wine 

X O childhood days enchanted ! O the magic 
of the spring 

XI To — smile, behind my lesson, at that old 
sweetheart of mine 

XII A face of lily-beauty, with a form of airy 
grace 



XIII When first I kissed her, and she answered 

the caress 

XIV I slipped the apple in it — and the teacher 

didn't know 

XV She gave me her photograph., and printed 
" Ever Thine " 

XVI And again I feel the pressure of her 
slender little hand 

XVII Where the vines were ever fruited, and 
the weather ever fine 

XVIII And she mv faithful sweetheart till the 
golden hair was gray 

XIX The door is softly opened, and — my wife 
is standing there 




The ordered intermingling 

of the real and the dream, — 
The mill above the river, 

and the mist above the stream; 
The life of ceaseless labor, 

brave with song and cheery call- 
The radiant skies of evening, 

with its rainbow o'er us all. 







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Nay, let me then believe in all 
the blended false and true 

The semblance of the old love 
and the substance of the new, — 






The then of changeless sunny days- 
the now of shower and shine — 

But Love forever smiling, — 

as that old sweetheart of mine. 







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As one who cons at evening 







o'er an album, all alone, 
And muses on the faces 

of the friends that he has known, 


















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The lamplight seems to glimmer 
with a flicker of surprise, 

As I turn it low — to rest me 
of the dazzle in my eyes, 










And light my pipe in silence, 
save a sigh that seems to yoke 

Its fate with my tobacco 

and to vanish with the smoke. 




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I is a fragrant retrospection — 
for the loving thoughts that start 
Into being are like perfume 

from the blossom of the heart; 





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Though I hear beneath my study, 
like a fluttering of wings, 

The voices of my children 

and the mother as she sings — 





















JllHUM 























In fact, to speak in earnest, 
I believe it adds a charm 

To spice the good a trifle 

with a little dust of harm, — 






























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For I find an extra flavor 
in Memory's mellow wine 

That makes me drink the deeper 
to that old sweetheart of mine. 






• !■(>!-■ 











O Childhood-days enchanted! 

O the magic of the Spring! — 
With all green boughs to blossom white, 

and all bluebirds to sing! 











When all the air, to toss and quaff, 

made life a jubilee 
And changed the children's shout and 

laugh to shrieks of ecstasy. 




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With eyes half closed in clouds that ooze 
I hear the old School-bell, 



from lips that taste, as well, 
p he peppermint and cinnamon, 












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And from " Recess" romp in again 
from " Blackmail's" broken line 

To — -smile, behind my reader, 
at that old sweetheart of mine. 



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A face of lily-beauty, 

with a form of airy grace, 

Floats out of my tobacco 

as the "Genii" from the vase; 

















I can see the pink sunbonnet 
and the little, checkered dress 

She wore when first I kissed her 
and she answered the caress 




With the written declaration that, 

"As surely as the vine. 
Grew 'round the stump," she loved me- 

that old sweetheart of mine. 











--— . 













Again I made her presents, 
in a really helpless way, — 

The big " Rhode Island Greening"- 
I was hungry too, that day! — 




But I follow her from Spelling, 
with her hand behind her — so- 

And I slip the apple in it — 
and the Teacher doesn't know 




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I give my treasures to her — all, 
my pencil — blue and red; — 

/Vnd, if little girls played marbles, 
mine should all be hers instead — 











But she gave me her photograph , 
and printed "Ever Thine" 

Across the back — in blue-and-red — 
that old sweetheart ot mine ! 
















And again I feel the pressure 
of her slender little hand, 

As we used to talk together 
of the future we had planned,- 






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When I should be a poet, 
and with nothing else to do 

But write the tender verses 
that she set the music to. . . 










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When we should live together 

in a cozy little cot 
Hid in a nest of roses, 

with a fairy garden-spot, 






Where the vines were ever fruited, 
and the weather ever fine, 

And the birds were ever singing 
for that old sweetheart of mine. 


















, . , ,, 































When I should be her lover 

forever and a day, 
And she my faithful sweetheart 

till the golden hair was gray; 


































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And we should be so happy 

that when either's lips were dumb 

They would not smile in Heaven 
till the other's kiss had come. 












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But, ah! my dream is broken 
by a step upon the stair, 

And the door is softly opened, 
and — my wife is standing there : 
























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Yet with eagerness and rapture 

all my visions I resign 
To greet the living presence 

of that old sweetheart of mine. 










C - i-* — 



LB JL 



